The Profane Becoming Sacred

Your new god? Getty Images

"We demand deliverance ... Artificial Intelligence advocates wax eloquent about the possibilities of machine-based immortality and resurrection, and their disciples, the architects of virtual reality and cyberspace, exult in their expectation of God-like omnipresence and disembodied perfection."
David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention

"[He spoke with enthusiasm about] robots taking over the world ... It was like [he wanted] to be able to control the world, and robots were the way to do that."
"He talked about starting a new country on an island. Pretty wild and creepy stuff."
"And the biggest thing is that he's always got a secret plan, and you're not going to know about it."
Former engineer and friend of Anthony Levandowski

"It's a fundamental break with the notion of the human."
"The human goes forth, lives technologically, and doesn't have to rely on simply belief in Christianity, but is prepared to stake everything on his ability to be adaptive and struggle for existence. And the 20th Century bears all the scars of this."
"The Way of the Future, Singularity theory, they're all talking about the end of the traditional conception of the human. The human body has not been able to stand up under the pressure of technology. It's been shattered."
"The 21st Century will be the century of the post-human."
Arthur Kroker, professor of political science, University of Victoria

Unlike most religions, which seek to connect people with the past, this one seeks to connect them with the future, the imagined “singularity” of runaway artificial intelligence. Mike Faille

Anthony Levandowski is a young man with vision, a robotics engineer responsible for building Google's Street View and operating its autonomous car project. An industrial espionage lawsuit between Google and Uber over the self-driving car has Anthony Levandowski at its centre with the allegation that he purloined "over 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary design files" representing Google's self-driving car when he left Google for employment with Uber.

Anthony Levandowski, the former head of Uber’s self-driving program, with one of the company’s driverless cars in San Francisco. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP

This, aside from his very personal venture in establishing a non-profit religious corporation in California, The Way of the Future, to worship artificial intelligence as "the Godhead". Bizarre, or forward-looking? He is a multimillionaire, founding his secret society or religion or what-have-you in 2014, serving as its president and CEO: "To develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society".

As big orders go, this one is a whopper, reeking of the kind of hubris that was once the sole purview of the Greek gods of ancient lore. But then, where and what is artificial intelligence not involved in and with: medicine and economics, politics and warfare, arranging human affairs in a manner once the province of traditional religion. Faith in the power of technology so pervasive and all-encompassing that we have become submissive to apps guiding our every decision purportedly based on free agency.

Artificial intelligence, robotics, post-humanism and the "singularity" in time where man merges with machine is on the horizon, taking the place of concepts of revelation, transcendence and deliverance. People now expect technology to provide us with convenience, comfort and survival. The mortal limits of the human body somehow surmounted as people "project" themselves on social media as "avatars".

"We can't ever remove the development of a new religion from its sociological context."
"Who gets to upload themselves? Who gets to have this digital existence, or an existence after death? "It hasn't always been conceived of as being for the everyday person."
Alexandra Boutros, professor, intersection of media, technology, identity in religious movements, Wilfred Laurier University

In Silicon Valley, inventors such as the departed Apple technician and industry leader Steve Jobs have acquired a saintly status while futurists like Google engineer Ray Kurswell, devotedly speak of imminent human immortality. Digital capitalism has enabled the religion of AI, according to Dr. Kroker.

Are you there God? It’s me, robot. Photograph: Ociacia/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Statistical Bias and Perceptions on Religious Devotion

"Caring for others versus personal fulfillment, those are two very different value constructs. And the relationship between them and religiosity is really significant."
"What this survey proves is that having a faith, being part of a faith community, seems to propel people in the direction of developing higher levels of compassion or caring."
"I find it noteworthy that we have significant divisions in this country on some moral issues, and those divisions seem to be heavily correlated with religious belief and membership in faith communities."
"We like to sometimes paint ourselves as this country where, unlike the United States, which has deep value differences, we are all sort of linked arm-to-arm on all issues. Actually, that's not true."
Angus Reid, founder/chairman, Angus Reid Institute

"On the one hand, in contrast to the prevalent public narrative that religion is private and it doesn't mater, it's quite clear that for the vast majority of Canadians, it does. Over half say, 'Religion is actually shaping my identity and my decisions'."
"On the other hand, that engagement is a relatively thin engagement."
Ray Pennings, executive vice-president, Christian think-tank Cardus

While some Canadians might not attend religious institutions like church regularly, many of them have religious views and personal faith. (Chris Corday/CBC) 

 

On Mr. Reid's part, the recent survey his firm conducted allied with Faith in Canada 150, appears to validate for him a foregone conclusion -- that religious faith makes us better people, more aware of the needs of others, willing to inconvenience ourselves for the sake of aiding others, and being more receptive to the need to be charitable and generous and caring. On Mr. Penning's part, that validation has a bitter core; that not enough members of the broader public have committed to religious adherence and those that have do so in a tepid manner. Religion or not people who live fulfilled lives themselves tend to be more generous with others; it's called simple human decency.



This project took a year to gauge the beliefs of Canadians who took part in the poll to arrive at a consensus on their religious practices. People responding to the questions were divided into four distinct categories identifying them  as a) non-believers on to b) religiously committed devotees regularly attending places of worship. Responding to the choice of two alternatives representing their idea of "the best way to live life", 53 percent chose "achieving our own dreams and happiness" rather than "being concerned about helping others".

When religion was brought into the equation, it was found that 67 percent of those committed to religion chose helping others, while 65 percent of non-believers selected the personal pursuit of happiness. Something seems to be missing here, and that is the common-sense understanding that people who are happy and satisfied are more likely and able to extend themselves to helping others, while those who are miserable are usually so caught up in their situation they are  most often incapable of giving aid to others.

Across different regions of Canada the question elicited different responses, with the Province of Quebec scoring the highest proportion of people selecting for self-fulfillment at 65 percent, while Alberta was second at 54 percent and British Columbia came next at 43 percent. Elsewhere in Canada, a majority of respondents selected giving aid to others; Saskatchewan proving the most generous at 59 percent.

Oddly enough, Quebecers were traditionally the most bound to Catholicism before undergoing a sweeping change where the Catholic Church stepped back during the Quiet Revolution as formerly devout parishioners rebelled against the stranglehold on life of the Church. And Quebec is the province whose administration is the most broadly social-welfare inclined, so Quebecers are accustomed to having things done for them, not to doing for others. Religious devotion still plays a private, not a public role in the province, despite which Quebecers are parsimonious when it comes to funding charities.



A total of 2,006 Canadian adults took part in the survey and responded to a series of questions with clear moral overtones. Pollsters concluded that the two groups representing the religious spectrum, both privately faithful and religiously committed were likelier to agree that:

• Canada should accept fewer immigrants and refugees;
• They would be uncomfortable if a child planned to marry someone from a different cultural or religious background;
• There should not be a greater social acceptance of people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer);
• Preserving life is more important than people's freedom to choose on issues like abortion and doctor-assisted death;

Which hardly shines a socially g enerous light on religious adherents; rather their socially conservative attitude bespeaks issues of intolerance and a lack of openly generous impulse. Another question was where the poll led participants to select the statement they felt reflected their personal views:

• People are fundamentally sinners and in need of salvation; or
• People are essentially good and sin has been invented to control people.

The essential goodness of people was selected by two thirds of those pooled while the religiously committed, providing roughly one-fifth of the survey group, felt by 73 percent that people are fundamentally sinners. The concept of right and wrong in absolute terms or a vacillating conception was posed as well with a large majority of 68 percent finding that right or wrong "depends on the circumstances", while close to 66 percent outright rejected that moral questions' outcome differ for different cultures.



Religiously committed were the most likely to claim universal rights apply to the entire human race, at 74 percent. And they represented people stating their faith to be of primary importance to their personal identity at 54 percent, and to their day-to-day lives at 55 percent. Of course religion, as does culture and heritage, shapes an individual's values and colours the way others are viewed; human beings are programmed by nature to cleave to those who share like commitments and values. Which should not deter them from viewing those outside their groups as worthy, but that too reflects basic human nature.

Cogito Ergo Sum

"By going back in one leap millions of centuries, [science] has succeeded in being witness to that primordial Fiat Lux (Latin for 'let there be light'] when, out of nothing, there burst forth with matter a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of chemical elements split and reunited in millions of galaxies ... Hence, creation took place."
"We say: therefore, there is a Creator. Therefore, God exists!"
Pope Pius XII

"Even when science cannot provide satisfactory answers -- Why is there more matter than antimatter? How did life begin? How does a material brain produce the subjective experience of thought? -- those who are skeptical of the textbook answers are lonely voices among a faithful mainstream, and shamed for it."
Joseph Brean, National Post: Redeeming Thomas

"We have a society that has a secular government [Canada] and there is a general assumption of faith being very private."
"On the other hand, when you actually take a look at everyday society, the majority of people are people of faith to one degree or another, and faith informs and influences many of the ways we deal with each other on a day-to-day basis."
"Some of the discomfort about some of the language [e.g. morality, forgiveness, mercy] does pose a challenge to faith leaders that perhaps they have not been as effective as they should at explaining themselves to their fellow citizens."
"We've conditioned ourselves to think that faith is extremely private and personal and not something to be talked about in polite company."
"The reality is we do that at our peril. Faith shapes how we relate to each  other, and if we're going to prosper as a society in the future we need to understand each other in a context of increasing faith diversity."
Ray Pennings, executive vice-president, think tank Cardus

"[The privately faithful 30 percent of poll respondents] are people who actually believe in God, believe in heaven, believe in an afterlife. They have largely not been involved in organized religion. They will go to funerals and weddings and that sort of thing, but their faith is largely a private matter, and it's really driven by their prayer. They pray on a regular basis."
"[The spiritually uncertain also 30 percent] seem to be a bit confused about where they want to be. On some issues they kind of side with the non-believers, but they haven't given up totally on everything."
"They ... believe that there's a God, but they're uncertain about the role of God."
"The word 'religion' itself has become a little bit of a four-letter word."
"The march toward secularism that has dominated Canadian society for the last couple of decades appears to be in a bit of a reversal and will be reversed over time if these trends continue, because clearly population growth is coming from immigration."
Angus Reid, founder, chairman, Angus Reid Institute

Actors perform the Stations of the Cross to mark Easter during the Holy Week in Ourem, central Portugal. (Photo credit FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images)

A new poll taken to test the prevalence or lack of faith among Canadians at a time when the general assumption is that religion plays less of an important role in most peoples' lives in Canada than ever before, paints a picture of a robust percentage of Canadians fully invested in their faith. The Angus Reid Institute along with Faith in Canada 150 placed poll respondents within four distinct categories reflecting their responses to poll questions engineered to gauge the level of their beliefs and religious practices.

The outcome of that classification resulting from the poll is that 21 percent of Canadians have been identified as religiously committed to hold a strong belief in God or a higher power, regularly attending religious services. Their direct opposite is the 19 percent of Canadians who have been designated into the category of non-believers (otherwise known as atheists). The larger group taking the middle ground have also been divided equally representing the "privately faithful" and "spiritually uncertain" (likely those said to be agnostic, in more familiar terms).

Each of these middle section groups have been divided equally to represent 30 percent. The poll's purpose was to distinguish and identify the numbers of Canadians categorized as believers and non-believers, and those who fall into a less clearly-defined category in the medium level of the spectrum. Respondents' reactions to a series of words toward which they were asked to register 'negative' or 'positive' resulted in 25 percent saying religion was positive, and 33 percent speaking of it as 'negative'.

"Evangelism", and "theology" gained the lowest estimation scores, while "forgiveness", "morality" and "mercy", on the other hand, were given the highest positive scores to reflect how those words generated a positive energy among respondents. Notable variations across regions in Canada were also identified where in the Prairie provinces about 30 percent of respondents gained the classification of religiously committed in comparison with 14 percent in Quebec, and 19 percent in British Columbia.

According to pollster Angus Reid, British Columbia represents "in many respects the most godless part of Canada", 27 percent fitting into the non-believer category. Quebecers, on the other hand, while deigning to avoid church attendance, still retain deep religious roots from their heritage, with only 18 percent identified as non-believers, while 36 percent are spiritually uncertain, and 32 percent privately faithful. "It's not that Quebecers have totally given up on God. They have given up on religion", clarified Mr. Reid.

Immigrants and visible minorities appear far likelier to be committed to religious faith, with visible minorities making up 16 percent of the group sampled, yet accounting for 29 percent of all religiously committed respondents.

Religious beliefs: All Canadians (in percentages)

• 67%   God or a  higher power exists;

  60%   Life after death;

  53%   God is active in this world;

  57%   Heaven;

  41%    Hell 

  

  The Denver Post      Pope Francis lies down in prayer for Easter services at the Vatican

The Passionate Faith Tug-of-War for Souls

"This is not only a political war, but a spiritual war. This is a crusade. The West is helping them."
Reverend Sergi Geiko, Orthodox priest, Maryinka, Ukraine

"Deliver us from evil."
"Hate divides, love unites. Use this chance, call his name, bring him into  your life. When he comes like bread, there will be no hunger."
Pastor Yevgeny M. Medvedev, evangelical missionary, Ukraine

"When Jesus was on Earth, he fed people and people followed him for that reason, too."
"When fear comes, people are open to God."
Protestant Missionary Lyubov V. Shpikhernyuk, Ukraine

Yes, when people are hungry they are grateful for donations of food to keep body and soul together. Food is the element required to ensure that the soul does not depart the body. The spiritual and corporeal essence of humankind are meant during a lifetime to share a soul. And evangelical missionaries feel they are following in the traditions of Christ through their distribution of free bread, groceries and firewood in Maryinka, Ukraine.

Ukraine is a country whose east has been riven by civil war. Life is uncertain and privation and desperation visit towns and villages in the Donetsk region where ethnic Russian Ukrainians feel it is their right to separate the land called Ukraine, to hand what they believe to be theirs to dispense of to Greater Russia. Russia certainly agrees and took the opportunity to bring Crimea under its sovereign wing.

And while the separatists and the government forces battle it out in a ceasefire that no one seems to take too seriously, the traditional Orthodox church is also facing opposition, from evangelical groups spurning Catholicism and lauding Protestantism. And so, the elderly and the indigent gather at roadsides to be  handed loaves of bread and Bibles while the missionaries comfort them: "Jesus wants peace!"

Volunteers affiliated with the Christian Aid Center of the Transfiguration Church in Maryinka distributed bread to the town’s residents. Credit Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Certainly that much is true, doesn't anyone want peace in a troubled world? So it makes uncommonly good sense that the Son of God sends his divine message of peace. And bread. The miracle of the loaves revisited in war-torn Ukraine. Maryinka is held by the Ukrainian regime where, close to the rebel capital of Donetsk, fighting is sporadic and deadly. While the conflict of physical violence destroys the quality of life, in the half-deserted town evangelicals offer succour.

Two years of war have brought suffering to the people of east Ukraine. But in the grey zone between the government troops and the Russian-backed rebels, life has been a crumbling zone of savagery and suffering-in-progress. Half of the region's prewar population remain in Maryinka and for the 350 children remaining two schools remain open. In the human heart, despite fear and drudgery, hope springs eternal. And hope springs a little more emphatically when promises of a kinder hereafter arrive.

Houses have a bombed-out look, mostly because they have been, and to linger on the street is to be exposed to high-powered sniper rifles of separatists. Maryinka has no natural gas or hot water, since municipal workers cannot perform their vital work of maintaining such infrastructure due to the danger, so pipes remain torn up by shelling. People have reverted to earlier rituals of endurance; hauling firewood, queueing for handouts of bread and groceries; sleeping in root cellars.

 Monitors with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe roam about in armoured vehicles during the daylight hours, monitoring the cease-fire; once they leave at dusk mortar fire resumes. "Maybe their leadership objects to them working at night", grimly quips Mikhailo M. Prokopiv, Ukrainian commander. "Anyway, at 6:30, the shooting starts", bypassing the agreed-upon truce.

Sergei N. Kosyak led a service at the Christian Aid Center of the Transfiguration Church in Maryinka, Ukraine, last month. Credit Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

The Russian wing of the Orthodox Church now has competition; filtered in in the wake of the Soviet  Union's collapse. They have adapted a truly winning formula; humanitarian work aligned with     proselytizing; as an introduction to the brand, a true public relations coup. Aid distribution points combined with churches have been established in ten towns on the Ukrainian side of the border, explains Sergei N. Kosyak, leader of the Christian Aid Center of the Transfiguration Church in Maryinka.

Hundreds of residents are drawn to regular religious services, and a few have been baptized. Some of the funding for the missionary work has been underwritten by Evangelical churches in the United States. The Good News Church located in the city of Slovyansk, north of Maryinka, has established a training school for missionaries in the conflict zone. To the present, 75 people completed the course and have deployed along the front. It can only do good for people to know they are not forgotten.

When the pro-Russian rebels held Slovyansk, they dispatched the evangelicals to exile. Once the city was back in the hands of the government, the missionaries returned to do their work. Sergei Kosyak, for example has a congregation of 70 people. There is a church choir, a bakery, and services on offer, like the delivery of firewood. The turnout for his church is similar in numbers to those who appear for Sunday services at the Orthodox Church of the Kazan Virgin in Maryinka.

And no surprise, the Orthodox priest, the Reverend Sergi Geiko is not too fond of 'luring doubters to God' with material rewards, such as bread. What they are doing, those missionaries, is trespassing in Orthodox land.

CBN News

Heart and Faith

"It's a big problem. I work here. I lived here until it got too cold [power shut off by the municipality]."
"There is a temple there and a temple there [large nearby houses of worship]."
"Demolishing everything breaks my heart. But yes, I will take it all down. I have got my permit to do that."
"I would like to have a temple here and still farm the property. That to me seems fair."
Le Thuan, Buddhist Vietnamese monk

Arlen Redekop/PNG    Le Thuan stands on the site where the City of Burnaby has ordered demolition of a temple and other buildings

 

He arrived in Canada as a refugee in 1988, and he made his home in British Columbia's lower mainland. He invested his heart and soul in expressions of his Buddhist faith and unexpected events have transpired to place him in a space of disbelief and distress. The City of Burnaby is resolutely determined that this man will not have his Buddhist temple, and he has been driven to obey their lawful injunction to obtain from them a permit to destroy his life's work.

Le Thuan who had fled Vietnam to live as a refugee in a camp in the Philippines in 1988, found himself a home in Canada 27 years ago. Opportunity came his way 14 years ago and he bought land in Burnaby, that land within the city-administered Agricultural Land Reserve. The only concession to its agricultural designation that an astute witness might find on the property is a raised patch of ground growing the organic blueberries that he sells in the summer months, the proceeds helping to pay for his temple.

Le Thuan had applied for permission from the Agricultural Land Commission to alter the designation of the land he committed himself to, so he could be enabled to subdivide the property to achieve his dream of hosting a temple and also growing things, but the City of Burnaby opposed his request. Gradually, however, Le Thuan had assembled a series of buildings on his property, around his house. Sheds at first to complement existing outbuildings.

Then he built a modest temple, a hall and a dining room seeing to it that plumbing and wiring were all installed. Thus was born the Vietnamese Unified Buddhist Congregation of British Columbia. And to that temple were attracted one hundred people to attend weekend services. On special occasions with the mounting of certain events, up to a thousand people would arrive to attend the Buddhist services. He had achieved his goal.

And then it all came tumbling down. Some agency informed the building-permit section of Burnaby in 2014 about the presence of those buildings Le Thuan had assiduously built in celebration of his religion. Which occasioned inspection. And where inspectors identified safety and health concerns, to complement the unlawful construction for which Le Thuan had never applied for the appropriate authorizing permit.

He can no longer live in his house, and has had to resort to renting a place to stay at in Chilliwack, located 100 kilometres' distance from Burnaby since the municipality shut off his power, awaiting their injunction to be obeyed. The Burnaby property is entirely devoted to Buddhist devotion, with impressive Buddhist statues. And the outbuildings are stacked full of building supplies and materials, gas heaters, hot-water tanks, sinks and toilets. Nearby, in the yard sit a backhoe and Bobcat.

Oh yes, and nearby, in spitting distance of the property devoted to Buddhism sit much larger religious edifices; the Evangelical Chinese Bible Church, the Filipino-rooted Iglesia ni Cristo,  and further along a large Hare Krishna temple. All located on that same land ostensibly dedicated to agricultural use. But it's not only the presence of those disparate houses of worship that defy the agricultural designation, since nearby there is also a golf course and ball diamonds.

Aside from putting out $950,000 to buy his land in 2002, Le Thuan has spent $300,000 on construction materials and other associated pay-outs. The demolition ordered by Burnaby Council has $120,000 associated with its work to destroy all the modest and purpose-built structures that Le Thuan has overseen. Little wonder that the very thought of proceeding with the order to destroy everything he has had built pains him.

Thinking that if he sells the land it might enable him to buy a church no longer in use and to convert it to a Buddhist temple, he placed a selling price of $9.8 million for the property that has been assessed at $4.7-million in value. He later dropped the price of his property to $7.8-million. His lack of enthusiasm for off-loading the property may be a reflection of the price he has placed on it.

Wistfully, he still envisions a miracle, that a reversal will take place, that he will be encouraged to seek the building permit he had failed to obtain prior to embarking on his building spree, and that he will be allowed to proceed. Why shouldn't he feel that to be the most equitable solution to the vexing problem, after all?

How is it fair that others have also built houses of worship on that land set aside for agricultural purposes, and he may not aspire to do the same?

With Profound and Fond Regrets

Celebrants at St. Matthias cozied together in the church chancel for the Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley’s homily on Christmas Day

 With Profound and Fond Regrets

"There's an aging infrastructure here that needs work. You can hear the gurgling in the heating system that needs attention, and there's water seepage in the basement that needs attention. We're not handicapped-accessible, and that needs attention."
"We could fix all of that, or we could choose to worship with our brothers and sisters down the street, and instead put that money into ministry."
"For a parish that was looking at the end of its own existence, to take that on because we believed it was the right thing to do, in spite of our troubles, is a strong testament to the courage and faith that lives in this community."
"The one that causes real heartache is in some way we may be betraying our forebears [by leaving]. How can we let it go? But the answer is simply, they would have done the same."
Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley, St.Matthias Anglican Church

Three of the church buildings that the congregation of St. Matthias has called home throughout the years. Due to declining numbers, the congregation will merge with a Westboro parish in the new year. (St. Matthias Anglican Parish)

"It takes me 20 minutes to walk here from home, 25 minutes to walk to All Saints Westboro, and 30 minutes to walk to the cathedral. So that tells you how over-churched we are  [in the community]."
"I mean, I have three churches -- three Anglican churches -- within a half-hour's walk."
Sylvia Shortliffe, area resident, Parkdale, Ottawa

"...We were married here, so we return on special occasions [though the family lives in another parish]. "
"It's sad to see it close. It's a beautiful building, and the wonderful people here have always been welcoming."
Todd Overtveld, Orleans

St. Matthias Anglican Church will be closing in the new year as the congregation merges with another church in Westboro. (Google Street View)

The church has been operating for some time at a deficit. Despite which the decision could have been made to allow it to continue for another five or even ten years. Instead, the decision was taken that its ministry operations were more vital to the spirit of the faith. And so, the the church is set to close and instead funding will be diverted to supporting food programs, lunch clubs, refugee sponsorships, shelters and other similar enterprises reflecting Church values.

St. Matthias Anglican Church on Parkdale Avenue is lamentably but willingly prepared to shutter its doors. Because of steeply declining attendance it has been decided that its final service is to take place on February 7. On March 2nd, the building is scheduled for deconsecration. St. Matthias's members have been cordially invited to attend services at All Saints Anglican church on Richmond Road, a veritable stone's throw away.

The church is large, built to accommodate at least six hundred congregants. St. Matthias has been the spiritual home of area residents for the past 127 years. So it will be with sorrow that it is destined to disappear from the area. The future of the site on which it stands is unknown, but the area Anglican diocese will make the determination of what will replace it. Whether it can be turned to use as an arts and community centre, or destroying the building and erecting in its stead, a residence for seniors.

It is a painful issue that has bemused and troubled other congregations elsewhere in the near past, and one which will continue to raise the attention of those who lament the passage of time and a dwindling church attendance from among the larger population.  On Friday, parishioner attendance was so sparse that people took their seats in the chancel, where the choir is accustomed to being accommodated; a mere few dozen of the faithful.

Christmas Eve service brought out a tad over two hundred people. An additional 80 arrived for an earlier service on Thursday. The 8:00 p.m. service was attended by a larger group than the Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley has greeted in two years. There is little doubt that regret and wistful memories brought out a few more congregants than had bothered attending in the last decade. Attendance tends to average around 75, noted the pastor.

The last song whose melody floated throughout St. Matthias in its final Christmas Day service happened to be Joy to the World. And that is how the congregants preferred to look on the decision that has stirred their memories of earlier times of familial church attendance during this one signal time of the year.

Bryan Bondy preaches to about two dozen parishioners at St. Matthias' Anglican church on Parkdale Ave. Friday's was the final Christmas Day service at the church, which is slated to be closed in the new year. Bruce Deachman / Ottawa Citizen

Not a Handmaid of God But of Good

"I don't believe in ... the god called God. Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share."
"Is the bible really the word of God? Was Jesus a person?"
"It's mythology. We build a faith tradition upon it which shifted to find belief more important than how we lived."
"... If we are going to continue to use language that suggests we get our moral authority from a supernatural source, any group that says that can trump any humanistic endeavour."
Reverend Gretta Vosper, United Church Minister, Toronto

Rev. Gretta Vosper is seen at her West Hill United Church in Toronto on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015. Vosper, a committed atheist who does not believe in the Bible, is fighting a process that could see her defrocked for her views.  (Colin Perkel/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

"What we don't want is to limit the scope of beliefs within the church, and yet what was being questioned here was: Has she gone too far?"
"The vision of the United Church of Canada is: There is a God in whom we believe, and our statements of faith are very clear about that."
Reverend David Allen, executive secretary, Toronto Conference

Reverend Vosper has gone a tad too far in completely departing from religious faith while operating within an organization whose purpose of existence is to promulgate and celebrate humankind's acceptance in the inarguable verity that a Divine Spirit omnisciently and powerfully created all that lives and guides all living things to the will of that spirit, infusing in humans their own spirit of goodness.
 
Nora Sanders, general secretary, United Church of Canada General Council, formulated a review process to be used by the church in determining whether 57-year-old Gretta Vosper, ordained in 1993 into a very 'relaxed' church environment and with her east-end Toronto church in the Toronto suburb of West Hill since 1997, should be defrocked. That determination will rest on whether Rev.Vosper is exhibiting faithfulness to her ordination vows.

Those vows included the affirmation of a belief in "God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". With Reverend Vosper making it abundantly clear that she has no such belief, and nor, as minister of the West Hill United Church, will she perform in the position to which she was assigned after ordination, the response seems clear enough. Back in 2001 Gretta Vosper delivered a sermon where for the first time she stated her lack of belief in a supreme deity.

At that time her congregation seemed not to mind their minister's renunciation of the faith in which she was ordained. And then, it appears they found that the deletion of the Lord's Prayer in 2008 a step too far for many in the congregation, prompting about one hundred of the church's 150 members to depart, leaving one third of the original church membership to continue supporting the work of their minister.

Now, the United Church is seeking to remove Reverend Vosper from their ministry. And she has prepared herself to defend her position within the church. Which is truly puzzling, for why would an avowed atheist wish to continue the farce of presenting as a minister of God, while denying the existence of any god?  She considers herself a humanist, preaching to her congregation the verities of human goodness.

Unassociated with any religious precepts. For religion is totally unnecessary to her vision of mature responsibility and sound, ethical behaviour in the espousal of worthy values. Obviously she sees the church and religious devotion as a crutch, infantalizing people toward a parent-child relationship where certain rules must be accepted and followed, in honour of the church and its belief in an Almighty Spirit.

So Reverend Vosper is in the process of appealing the General Council's ruling as expressed by its general secretary, Nora Sanders, claiming that she is being judged and found wanting; most unChristian, supposedly. Supporting her, the board chairman of the West Hill congregation who had led the committee that hired Reverend Vosper, claims to have had no complaints from congregants.

One might imagine that one hundred out of one-hundred-fifty congregants leaving their church membership represented one colossal complaint, but evidently not. Reverend Vosper insists that she and her supporters hold true to her humanistic views. Certainly; but is the United Church of Canada and one of its member-churches a credible and suitable venue for the espousal of those views?

"If the cost of that [clinging to those views] is that we are no longer welcome within that denomination, it will be because that denomination has defined us out of it, not because we have defined ourselves out of it", huffs Reverend Vosper.

Oh, goodness me!

Might she have missed her true calling as a motivational speaker?

Gretta Vosper, an atheist minister at an east-end United Church, is disputing a review of her position in the church based on her beliefs. (Gretta Vosper/Facebook)

Surrendering Values to Discriminatory Accommodation

"I remember vividly and give thanks for being granted Canadian citizenship many years ago in the citizenship court presided over by Joe Young in Regina. I came here as a boat person and had to learn Canadian ways, work hard and assimilate while often facing slurs like "You can be sent right back on the boat to where you came from if you cause us any problems". Under the tutelage of my parents, excellent teachers and members of the nurturing community of Lafleche, Sask., I learned to respect the two founding cultures of Canada and those of Canada's First Peoples; to adopt and live by Canadian values, norms and laws; and to use both official languages, French and English, correctly.
"Millions of immigrants to Canada from all over the world have done the same. They join me in their valid expectation new immigrants, however they got here, including other boat people like me, to do the same or leave, taking their attitudes and baggage with them."
Dennis Hall, Saskatoon [Letter to the Editor, National Post]

"Allowing immigration without checking cultural attitudes is like buying a motor for a canoe. You don't know whether it will speed things up or sink the craft."
Jonathan Usher, Toronto [Letter to the Editor, National Post]

"If we don't engage in the (cultural) discussion, we won't fully understand their health needs and they won't get met."
"So ultimately they will get sicker and be a greater cost to the health-care system." 
"For some cultures who do not generally take pharmaceutical medication, this [drug treatment] is very frightening."
Marie Serdynska, head, Montreal Children's Hospital, socio-cultural consultation and interpretation services 

"It's challenging to the caregivers in that situation, when the mother is at the bedside and the father is able to visit only in the evenings."
"And we believe that both equally have decision-making power, both should have information."
Dr. Jonathan Hellman, neo-natal intensive care unit, Toronto's SickKids Hospital

"Some might respond very categorically, 'Nope, in this place all beds face the same way'. Someone oriented another way might say, 'Yeah, they are all faced that way, but maybe if we got an extension cord, there is actually something we can do' [to have hospital bed face Mecca]."
Randi Zlotnik Shaul, director of bioethics, SickKids, Toronto

"It's about reasonable accommodation and understanding. When people are ill, you're dealing with very vulnerable people, so empathy goes a long way."
Khadija Haffajee, spokeswoman, National Council of Canadian Muslims

"It's ugly, it's unfair. To ... have someone say you're not good enough [to deliver medical care] because of the colour of your skin is offensive."
Linda Wright, bioethicist, University Health Network, Toronto

Carefully seeking out methods whereby social and health-care workers can accommodate cultural variances in the immigrant community, to make newcomers or those of other faiths and heritage and cultural backgrounds feel 'at home' in Canada represents a social industry of a benevolent society, one that has no apparent wish to expect that new immigrants accommodate themselves to learning all that they can and should about the new society they are entering.

Canada is a country comprised of immigrant stock. West European at first, but then increasingly from countries other than Britain and France throughout Europe. Asians were brought to Canada for their labour potential, Africans gradually made immigration passage to Canada; all immigrants and refugees who arrived in Canada other than from France and Britain faced discrimination and cultural insensitivity on the part of those already settled considering themselves the dominant players.

But the immigrants from Eastern Europe, the people of colour, the visible minorities all managed to find places for themselves in the country, as they learned the social covenant, the culture, and immersed themselves in Canadian values, managing at the same time to honour their ethnic, religious and cultural heritage. In the new, culturally-sensitive Canada, government agencies at all levels, and church and social-work enterprises go out of their way to extend 'understanding' and 'assistance', while a general laxity of expectations that new Canadians and landed immigrants do their part is missing.

Catering to cultural preferences in some instances becomes a lesson in the practise of unethical and even immoral enablement, when those 'aids to understanding' contravene Canadian values and even laws. Dr. Hellman of SickKids discussed at a national pediatric and bioethics conference his reaction when a father from a patriarchal society asked doctors not discuss a child's medical condition with the mother outside the presence of the husband/father.

Bruce Edwards / Postmedia News   An examination room at Stollery Children's Hospital.

The issue of two First Nations girls with leukemia who decided withdrawal from standard life-saving chemotherapy was more consonant with their aboriginal traditions, enabling them to be treated with native remedies instead, and to attend a bogus health facility, leading to the death of one of the children came under discussion. In Halifax some hospitals convinced the fire marshal that smudging should be permitted in patients' rooms. Requiring smoke detectors to be shut off.

Massage clinic treats First Nations girls for cancer -- CBC video still

In other instances dying patients can make requests that their bed be turned to face Mecca. St. Joseph's Health Centre in London, Ontario operates a clinic during Ramadan to aid the city's three thousand Muslims with diabetes. An observance of heightened privacy for female hospital patients is practised for Muslims, as though all female patients wouldn't appreciate that same level of privacy whereby they are advised in advance of staff bedside arrivals.

In 2013 reports emerged of doctors in Quebec issuing virginity certificates. The province's medical regulatory body responded that physicians must refuse to comply with such requests. The issue of patients asking for a physician of a particular gender or specific race another case in point, to which accommodation should never be given. When patients insist they will not accept treatment by a doctor or nurse of a certain race, the issue is one of human rights gone awry.

Alerting Sensibilities

"Although I don't remember most of the math equations I worked on (in Grade 6), I do remember the profound lessons I learned from that day. I can say I wouldn't be the person I am today without that. It is the foundation of my outlook on life."
"He [former teacher Patrick Mascoe] always tries to empower children and young people to build on their character and to be kind to one another and understand each other on a deep level. I was really moved by that, and that is why I always come back."
Sophia Mirzayee, 21, student, Carleton University, Ottawa

Sophie Mirzayee, now 21 and attending Carleton University, says her view of the world changed after listening to a Holocaust survivor.    Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen

"After 9/11, they were saying they couldn't teach Holocaust education in Grade 10 because the kids were walking out of the classroom saying the Holocaust never happened and the Jews are our enemies. There was a lot of turmoil."
Patrick Mascoe, Grade 6 teacher, Charles H. Hulse Public School, Ottawa

"We have a lot more things in common than we do have differences."
"I guess we learned that it doesn't really matter what religion you are, we can all be friends."
Haley Miller, 12, student, Ottawa Jewish Community School

Sometimes one person's vision put into action, making the right contacts and the remedial moves that situations require, does make a huge difference in society. Patrick Mascoe's perplexed reaction to what he saw around him with a bitter hardening of attitudes from young Muslim students who attend the Charles H. Hulse elementary school in Ottawa led him to consider what he might do as one person to effect a change in attitude. What he witnessed happening at his school meant to him that lack of experience led to ignorance.

Patrick Mascoe, a Grade 6 teacher at Charles H. Hulse, started the program 11 years ago because of increasing intolerance among young people in the years following 9/11.   Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen

He felt that the person-to-person interpersonal introduction of students from one parochial Jewish school to students of another public school with a majority Muslim presence could and should teach the children at both schools that there is indeed more that unites them as young people living in Canada, despite their religious conflicts than what it is that sets them apart. Bigotry and a lack of openness is what set them apart; hearing conversations between adults whose attitudes had already hardened is what set them apart.

Patrick Mascoe decided he would contact some of the teachers from the Ottawa Jewish Community School and persuade them to help him connect Grade 6 students at his predominately Muslim school with their peers at the Jewish school. The contact began with a degree of separation, in that letters were initially exchanged, with the children at each of the schools writing about themselves. This gave them the first inkling that they were quite alike, after all.

Out of that initial contact grew a Day of Cultural Understanding, eleven years ago. Students met and they played games together. And then they listened to David Shentow, an elderly Jewish man, speak about his background as a Holocaust survivor. Since then, the surface issues that led to the initiation of the program have dissipated; students from each of the schools no longer viewed one another with suspicion, casting aspersions one on the other, as cultural-religious enemies.

Sumaya Al-Idrissi, left, Haley Miller, right. Julie Oliver/Ottawa Citizen

Haley Miller who attends classes at the Ottawa Jewish Community School, discovered the pleasure of a close friendship with Sumaya Al-Idrissi, from the Charles H. Hulse public school. The twelve-year-olds speak about their shared interests. Their discovery that knowing someone personally and finding them open to sharing themselves in friendship represented a far better emotional and maturing experience than simply accepting an atmosphere of animosity toward those whom one has no knowledge of, relying on a hateful narrative on which to base hostility.

When Sophia Mirzayee, as a student at the public school first was exposed to the Annual Day of Cultural Understanding, she listened to David Shentow speak of his painful background. "It really sparked something in me. I was crying. I was a total wreck. I felt despair", she explained much later, at the 11th annual such event, events she takes care to return to, though she is now older and a university student. She feels compelled to commit herself to the cause of mutual acceptance and understanding.

Her family origins are as Afghans. She had never met a Jewish person, her knowledge of the Holocaust was utterly lacking before she became part of the program. She remains in touch with her original pen pal from the program. Her own grandfather had been involved in human rights campaigns in Afghanistan. And she now studies human rights at university. Now, speaking at the latest Annual Day of Cultural Understanding, Sophia Mirzayee tells the younger students how Mr. Shentov, now too ill to appear in public, told students they have the power to change the course of history.

His charge to the students when Ms. Mirzayee first heard him speak remains one of the motivating inspirations for her chosen course in life. She speaks with gratitude of her old teacher, Patrick Mascoe, encouraging his students and those from the parochial school to become leaders; to indulge in the introspection of prodding themselves as to whether their presence in any situation helps to ensure "it is a better place".

Jewish, Christian and Muslim boys Noah Thompson, Jared Scheinberg, Keith Sarazin, Boris Livshits, Hussam Alhoumud and Noor Maher horse around before a basketball match.  Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen

The Immediate Intimacy of Religious Devotion

Religion is a faith devotion reflecting the inner spiritual need of human belief in a deity, a fathomless being of great omniscience held to be the source of all that exists, including the living creatures that worship that being, in whatever form taken. Religions and their sacred beliefs are as diverse as the ingenuity of human beings' imaginations in constructing their belief in a divine presence whom all should be grateful to and honour.

It is precisely the differences, however, that serve to create distance between one believer and another. Belief in a  higher order of supremely powerful intelligence is globally universal, and probably arose as humankind sought to make sense of the natural world and its incredibly diverse presentation; its geology, biological forms, environmental dramas of volcanic action, earthquakes, the nighttime heavens, raging storms and windswept vistas.

Unto many and diverse, and finally one supranatural force humans invested reverence and responsibility. Belief required no proof of existence, since faith accepts the presence of an omnipresent creator blessing humankind with the fruits of its labours. Again, trouble lies in the challenges inherent in human nature to consider what one group believes to be the superior relationship with that powerful being over all others.

And where once, adherents of newly-realized religious devotions were persecuted for the impudence of their belief that theirs represents the only true acknowledgement of devotion to the creator, we believe we now live in a world that is more tolerant, accepting of differences. But the fact is our human DNA is invested with certain universal traits and exclusion of the 'other' reflecting the primal blueprint of survival.

On a small but telling scale a drama is playing out in social housing, an apartment complex operated by Ottawa Community Housing where a multicultural, multi-faith building whose inhabitants have come to the conclusion that some among them are exhibiting symptoms of entitlements of an exclusive nature. All such large buildings inhabited by many people have common areas for the use of the aggregate.

Dena Ware stands beside one of the Christian pictures put up in the common room of her Ottawa Community Housing building after some Muslim women were spotted praying there. Images of Jesus cropped up after bingo and those pictures have been removed twice now. However, more crop up, she says.
Julie Oliver / Ottawa Citizen

In one of the buildings at the Russell Gardens community complex a cultural/social/religious dysfunction has surfaced. In the lounge of the building which is a common room for the use of all tenants, people gather to play board games, to celebrate birthdays, watch television and other group events. In the last several years residents worshipping Islam have taken to using the area for prayers.

Eliciting from other tenants who are Christian, resentment. In the words of one resident: "It's not a church". One woman who is Roman Catholic stated that Catholics make no use of the lounge as a place of worship, why then should Muslims? Another woman, in charge of the bingo games, became incensed when five Muslim men gathered tablecloths from the bingo tables to place on the floor while they prostrated themselves in prayer.

In response to her verbalized protests, one of the men called her a "terrorist". Some of the female tenants took to hanging religious prints or large hangings of the Nativity and other symbols of Christianity on the walls in hopes of deterring further use of the common room for prayers to Islam. And then the hangings began to disappear. Strangely enough a devout Roman Catholic woman had spirited them away and destroyed them.

Because, she explained, no religious symbols should hang in the building's common room. "I know I will burn in hell", she said, after admitting she had dumped the hangings in the garbage. Her action was prompted by concern that images of Jesus in a common room would convey to non-Christians they were not welcome there. Obviously, no one ever informed her that Christ has his place in Islamic theology.

Rumours began to circulate that the Muslims living in the apartment complex were members of al-Qaeda. The controversy and poor relations between the tenants raised the ire and sympathy in equal measure of the residents. At a meeting of tenants with an Ottawa Community Housing manager, tenant Dena Ware stated a policy was required to settle these disagreements.

The management of the project should either ban religious images representing any faiths whatever, in the public areas of the building: "[2100] is a multi-denomination and multicultural building", she said; images of Jesus and the cross have implications that the lounge is special to only those of Christian faiths.

In reality, the common area of the building should be off limits to any expression of religious devotion. No symbols of Christian belief should be seen in those public areas. And most certainly no one among the tenants should feel entitled to use the area as a site for prayer. Tenants who are Muslim have their own private space in their apartments where their prayer rugs can be spread. And it is there that their devotions should take place.